There were 318 unemployed vessels over 500 twenty-foot-equivalent units with a combined capacity of 1.4 million TEUs, as of April 18, down from 325 ships of 1.48 million TEUs two week earlier, the industry analyst said.
The number of ships above 7,500 TEUs without work declined from 58 to 43, of which 31 are owned by ocean carriers and the remainder by ship charterers.
Unemployment in the Panamax sector continued to rise with 95 ships ranging from 3,100 to 5,100 TEUs ships laid-up, four more than two weeks earlier.
“Prospects for Panamax ships are taking a further turn for the worse, as carriers began to announce the deployment of neo-Panamaxes and classic over-Panamaxes on all-water Far East-U.S. East Coast loops via the expanded Panama Canal,” Alphaliner said.
Five FE-USEC loops, employing a total of 50 Panamax ships, will be closed or replaced by services that employ 6,000- to 10,000-TEU vessels, starting from June, and further upsizing and consolidation moves are expected to be unveiled in the coming weeks.
This will deal a “severe” blow to the Panamax sector with the idle pool of these vessels likely to exceed 100 by the end of the summer, when all classic Panamax ships currently trading on the FE-USEC loops will have terminated their last rotations.
“Having been the kings of the container trades in the two decades that followed the launch of the first generation of full-Panamaxes in 1972, the type now seems obsolete,” Alphaliner said.
